English is rule-based. I repeat: Like all languages, English is rule-based. A tweet recently appeared in my Twitter feed in which Merriam-Webster, the dictionary, touted the nonsense that English rejects order. “Because English rejects order. It actively opposes it. It lures order into an empty house and sets a series of Home Alone-style traps to […] More
<*tion> is not an English suffix. I repeat: <*tion> is not an English suffix. I previously wrote a post entitled The -ion Suffix, Connecting Vowel <i>, and Phonological Markers in which I explain the reason that only <ion> is a suffix. To avoid repeating myself again, I suggest reading my original post first before continuing […] More
To begin, -*tion, -*sion, -*cion, and -*xion are not suffixes. Only -ion is a suffix. A suffix is a bound morpheme that attaches to the end of the stem of a word to form either a new word or a new form of the same word. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of […] More
One way in which nouns differ from other grammatical forms in the English language is grammatical number. Prototypical English nouns have both singular and plural forms. The holiday season often causes problems for English users when mailing out seasonal cards. While some last names are easy to pluralize (Johnson becomes Johnsons), others are trickier (Does […] More
Adverbs in English are traditionally defined as “words that describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and clauses.” Adverb phrases are phrases formed by an adverb plus any adverb phrase modifiers. In English, prototypical adverbs and adverb phrases perform eight grammatical functions: Adverb phrase head Adjective phrase modifier Adverb phrase modifier Verb phrase modifier Prepositional phrase modifier […] More
Traditional grammars define adjectives as “words that describe nouns.” Adjective phrases are phrases formed by an adjective plus any modifiers or complements. In English, prototypical adjectives and adjective phrases perform four grammatical functions: Adjective phrase head Noun phrase modifier Subject complement Object complement The grammatical functions that a grammatical form can perform are referred to […] More
Possessive nouns are nouns that indicate a possession of or some other relationship to another word or phrase. In the English language, the affixation of the possessive clitic (‘s [apostrophe s] or s’ [s apostrophe]) forms possessive nouns. Possessive nouns perform the grammatical function of determinative in English grammar. Learn how to form and pronounce […] More
Prototypical English nouns have both singular and plural forms. Singular nouns refer to one “person, place, thing, or idea” while plural nouns refer to “not one” (two or more or less than one) “people, places, things, or ideas.” Regular nouns are predictable, taking an -s suffix to form the plural. Irregular nouns are unpredictable, following […] More
An affix is a bound morpheme that attaches to the stem of a word to form either a new word or a new form of the same word. The two types of affixes in English are prefixes and suffixes. Affixes may be derivational or inflectional. Derivational affixes create new words. Inflectional affixes create new forms […] More
